Documentary is supposed to make us understand the world better. But reality is harsher than pictures and in the face of a violent and incoherent world, we find shelter in personal, humble stories. Stories in which the characters speak directly to us. Their voices have been driving us through the festival. We’re discovering sound again. The intimacy of the voice is a driving force behind many of this year’s projects, and seems a natural tool to facilitate immersion.

The internet is fully grown up now. Projects focus on what’s needed to tell a story, instead of what is possible with technology. Instead of adding, we’re subtracting, taking away what is superfluous. We’re starting to master the medium, and are learning that it’s usually best to do one thing, and do it well.
We believe our two chosen projects are exemplary for this trend.IDFA DocLab Immersive Non-Fiction Award
For this new award, we chose a project that has simplicity at its heart. The tools used for this project are indeed state of the art: the real world and human imagination. At it’s core it has an urgent question: how do we learn to live together, to trust people who are different from us? The winner awkwardly challenges us with the idea that we can be characters in other people’s lives. The winner of the IDFA DocLab Immersive Non-Fiction Award is Someone Else by Ant Hampton.IDFA DocLab Award for Digital Storytelling
Our choice for the IDFA DocLab Award for Digital Storytelling gives the user the chance of coloring their experience and connecting the dots with their imagination. In a time when we can access anything online, it felt welcomed to hear a personal story, a point of view. Poetry, contemplation and emotions are pieces of a puzzle that fall naturally into place in this work. The winner of the IDFA DocLab Award for Digital Storytelling is Drawing Room bij Jan Rothuizen and Sara Kolster.

DOCLAB

IDFA DocLab is the New Media program of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA). Since 2007, the program showcases new forms of documentary storytelling and interactive media art, both online and offline. During the IDFA Festival in November, DocLab presents a competition program for Digital Documentary Storytelling, live cinema events, interactive installations, workshops and industry panels. The program is open to all media that can be used to tell a documentary story.more